At the dawn of the personal computer era in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, there were dozens of companies that made small PCs for home use.

As a new interest in these classic machines grows today, more and more emulators have appeared which allow you to run older operating systems on your Mac or PC. Hundreds of classic emulators now exist, far too many to cover here.

We’ll highlight the major ones and the most interesting ones.

The Apple II, released in 1978, was Apple’s first killer product created by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, and it rocketed the company from a garage startup to billion-dollar corporation. There were several models of the Apple II: the original Apple II, the Apple II+, IIe, IIc, and IIgs. There were several other minor variants of each as well.

Most of the Apple II computers had a mere 4K-64K of RAM, although a wide range of third-party RAM expansion cards appeared, including one from Microsoft. The Z-80 Softcard also from Microsoft turned the Apple II into a Z80-based computer capable of running the CP/M OS.

Hard drives at the time were still a thing only for large mainframes and minicomputers, and were commercially rare for PCs, although they did exist. Instead, ’70s and ’80s computers used floppy disks – usually 5.25-inch and later 3.5-inch ones. Very early business minicomputers used 8″ variants.

The Apple II was no exception and Apple sold the Disk II Shugart-based drive along with the Apple II. Later several other 5.25-inch variants appeared, and when the Mac was released in 1984, Apple also released 3.5″ drives for later Apple II models such as the IIgs.

The first killer app for the Apple II was VisiCalc — the world’s first spreadsheet, sold on floppy disk, written by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. VisiCalc gave accountants, business people, and mathematicians the ability to enter, and automatically recalculate large data sets with the touch of a button.

Suddenly, previous manual entry work such as keeping books and scientific simulations became automatic. Companies flocked to the Apple II in droves, and the personal computer revolution was born.

The Apple II sold close to five million units – unheard of for any PC of the time – and netted Apple billions in profits. An entire industry arose around the Apple II with vendors making add-on cards, printers, sound boxes, modems, and a wide range of other peripherals.

Apple was born out of the then-nascent home-brew computer scene in CA in the late 1970’s. Originally, most PCs were sold as kits by mail-order or in small computer shops. Hobbyists would order PC kits and assemble them. The Apple II’s predecessor, the Apple I was one such kit.

The Apple II was the first real home computer sold as a fully-assembled PC right out of the box. People loved it.

A huge number of video games also appeared for the Apple II series, and along with Atari, gave rise to the home video game market. Previously, video games were the stuff of coin-operated arcades with large arcade machines with quarter slots in the front for payment.

After Apple released the Macintosh in 1984, it also released a new GUI-driven version of the Apple IIgs operating system, giving that computer a Mac-like feel.

Today there are a number of Apple II emulators available, including some online ones. Chief among these are Virtual ][, and for the IIgs, GSPlus, KEGS, GSport, and XGS.

If you have Java installed, the Apple ][ Disk Browser allows you to inspect and peek into the contents of Apple ][ .dsk files.

For a really fun online Apple II emulator, check out AppleIIjs.

The incredible virtualapple.org is a site which allows you to play nearly every Apple II or IIgs game ever made.

For all of the Apple II emulators except the online ones, you’ll first need an Apple II ROM file for each particular machine. Be aware that all Apple II ROM code is still copyrighted by Apple, so in order legally use an Apple II emulator app, you must first actually own an Apple II ROM chip or an Apple II computer containing an Apple II ROM.

Later Apple released the Apple III – an all-in-one evolution of the Apple II, which was a commercial failure.

There is one definitive Apple III emulator, Sara, but sadly it’s only for older PowerPC-based Macs and has not been updated in close to fifteen years.

Also check out the apple3.org website which has host of info on Apple III computers.

mauseum.net has an interesting Apple III page, but it is German-only.

Kelvin Sherlock has a frontend for MAME featuring many Apple machines including Apple III, but it is still under development.

He also has a newer, partial port of the IIgs toolbox called Golden Gate.

Hidden away on one of Apple’s little-remembered archive servers, ftp.asimov.net is an older Apple III archive now open-sourced called Apple 3 DVD, which includes a copy of Sara and a wide range of documents and utilities:

Named after Steve Job’s first daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the Lisa was too big, too expensive, and was a commercial failure. But its development and technology gave birth to the original Macintosh in 1984. Last week Apple open-sourced all the original Lisa source code and software, including its apps – the Lisa Office System. In fact, most of the Macintosh development at Apple originally was done on a Lisa.

On macOS, there is one definitive Lisa emulator app: LisaEm, by Ray Arachelian. Configuration is fairly easy, and once you have the original Lisa software, you can load it into LisaEm as a disk drive. Cursor movement is a bit sluggish, but this has more to do with the Lisa’s original software than LisaEm itself.

There is one additional Lisa emulator for macOS: IDLE, but it doesn’t appear to run on macOS Ventura.

After Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, he formed a new company, NeXT, which created new computers, and the NeXTStep OS. In 1997 Apple bought NeXT for $700 million and NeXTStep became the foundation for macOS and iOS.

Before macOS and iOS, there was Mac OS 9, and before that Mac OS 8, and before that System 7.x. All of these ran on either 68K or PowerPC-based Macs. MacOS 9.2.x was the last version of Mac OS 9 before Mac OS X was released in 2000.

There are a variety of Classic Mac emulators, including:

Even before System 7 there was the black and white System 6.0.8. Mini vMac is a System 6 emulator, but you will need to find a classic Mac ROM image file in order for it to work.

Also be sure to check out the plethora of classic System 6 software at archive.org.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s available in classic emulators for the Mac, but there are two other general emulators: VirtualBox from Oracle, and QEMU (pronounced “Q-ee-mu)”. Both are free, but QEMU is a little more difficult to set up.

VirtualBox is a breeze to use, but quality has declined in recent years and current versions are a bit buggy with missing controls, crashes, and other inexplicable behavior. Still, it’s worth using because it allows you to run a huge number of other OS’es on your Mac.

Using VirtualBox, you can run nearly any version of Windows, Linux, some versions of Android, such as the Android x86 project, old versions of NeXTStep, decades-old versions of BeOS and its modern equivalent, Haiku, some Raspberry Pi operating systems, and Sun‘s Solaris operating system, which is now also part of Oracle.

To use VirtualBox, after installation open it and click “New” at the top of the window. Here you’ll be asked to set up a location for the VirtualBox file for this machine, and to create a Virtual Hard Disk (.vdi) file. You’ll also be asked to choose what type of OS you want to install.

Once everything is set up you can set a downloaded install .iso image as that machine’s CD/DVD ROM drive, set it as the boot drive in “Settings->System”, then start the virtual machine by clicking the “Start” button. The .iso or CD image you selected will be booted and you can install from there.

Once installation is complete, power the virtual machine off, then change the drive boot order by clicking the “Settings->System” button again, then setting the new “Hard Disk” (.vdi file) as the top boot volume by dragging it to the top of the list. The next time you click Start, the machine will boot from the .vdi hard disk you just installed onto.

Most retro floppy disk formats can now be read and written on most modern Macs and PCs, and there are a number of utilities to use them, or peek inside their contents.

If you have an actual Apple II computer you want to transfer files to, and a Mac, you can use ADTPro, which is software on both ends and which allows you to copy old Apple II files from your Mac to an Apple II over a serial cable.

There are hundreds of retro emulators out there, and we’ve only looked at a few. We didn’t cover PC emulators, DOS, Windows in-depth, Atari, Tandy, Sinclair, or TI/99-4A, all of which we’ll cover in a future article.

TikTok is a hub for burgeoning creators and artists. Whether you want that viral cat meow as your text tone, that new artist’s song as your ringtone, or want to assign that hilarious goat’s scream as your brother’s personalized text tone, this article teaches you how to customize your tones by downloading different sounds from your favorite TikTok creators.

You’ve first got to select the video you want, and save it to your device locally.

1. Find the video you would like to transform into a ringtone.
2. Long press on the TikTok video you’ve selected for your ringtone
3. Click save video

Get the Ringtones Maker app from the App Store

The next step is downloading Ringtones Maker from the App Store. This is a quick and free download, and one you can easily delete later, if you choose.

1. Download the Ringtones Maker app from the app store and tap the plus sign.
2. Select import from video
3. Tap on the file and select make

The next step will have you downloading GarageBand through Ringtones Maker. Again, this is a fast download and can be deleted once you’ve made your ringtone.

1. Download GarageBand and long press on the video.
2. Tap share.

You’re almost there. The next few steps fly by, and include exporting your sound to your phone for ringtone or text assignment.

1. Tap Ringtone and hit continue.
2. If you wish, rename your ringtone so as not to confuse it with others.
3. Tap export.
4. A screen will pop up, prompting whether would like to assign it to your ringtone. Tap Standard Ringtone.
5. To check if it is indeed assigned, head on over to settings, sound & haptics, and voila — it should be assigned under ringtone

Tap ringtone at the middle of the screen.

Rename your ringtone, if you wish.

Export your sound, and assign it to your ringtone.

Your TikTok ringtone will now be up and running. Enjoy your new ringtone!

You can get HomePods and an Apple TV to connect to a hotel’s Wi-Fi network.

Occasionally, you may find yourself spending a long time in a hotel. It could be a week, it could be longer, but it’s certainly long enough to yearn for your Apple devices that you probably left at home.

If you know full well that you’re going to be out at remote lodgings for an extended period, and that you’re going to be working at a hotel, you will probably want to bring along some parts of your home office setup along for the ride.

This isn’t as straightforward as you may think, due to the way most hotels provide Internet access to guests. Even in these cases, you may still be able to hook up an Apple TV or a HomePod in your temporary room to elevate the experience.

Here’s what you need to know.

A hotel’s network is one built to service the typical guest. To the hotel, that means someone with a smartphone like an iPhone, an iPad or something similar, and maybe even a MacBook Pro.

Since this is what is typically used by most guests, the Wi-Fi and ethernet network of a hotel is built to accommodate that scenario. Everything is made as reasonably secure and private as possible, and without necessarily considering alternate setups.

For example, most of the time, hotel networks disable peer-to-peer networking, so that guests can’t connect and communicate with the hardware of other network users. That makes sense from a security standpoint, but it means you’re not necessarily going to have your iPhone and iPad see each other over the hotel’s network alone.

You may want to connect HomePods and an Apple TV, but a hotel’s network usually isn’t set up to allow that to happen.

This therefore becomes a problem if you want to use some non-standard devices in your hotel room. A HomePod or HomePod mini won’t necessarily connect through a hotel’s network, especially if theres’ a landing page or “captive portal” to navigate, since there’s no usable display on the HomePod itself.

Then there’s the Apple TV, which would be useful since you’d have all of your streaming services ready to go on the compact and easily transported set-top box, instead of dealing with the hotel’s own system. Again, it’s a problem of connectivity to the network.

In each of these cases you can get the non-standard Apple devices going on the hotel Internet connection. However, you’re not necessarily going to be able to get every feature running, nor are you necessarily going to get them working together.

A single HomePod is relatively easy. You will have to use an iPhone or iPad to configure the connection, much like the initial setup of the smart speaker.

Be aware that this is something that has been introduced from iOS 15.4 and later. It also requires the network to use PEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, or EAP-FAST authentication types, though it’s easier to just try connecting it instead of looking that information up.

1. Using an iPhone or iPad, connect to the hotel’s Wi-Fi network. Follow the instructions to establish the connection.
2. Open the Home app, then touch and hold HomePod.
3. Scroll down the page and tap “Move HomePod to” followed by the hotel’s network name.
4. Tap Done.

You may see a warning advising that some features “may not work on this network.” This is chiefly due to the network blocking peer-to-peer Wi-Fi.

The list of blocked features can include setting up a HomePod stereo pair, Personal Requests, timers, using HomePod as an intercom, and home theater audio with Apple TV.

In some setups, you may be able to set up a stereo pair without relying on additional hardware. On locked-down networks, it’s unlikely.

Much like the introduction of iOS 15.4, tvOS 15.4 adds in the ability to navigate captive portals, again via the use of an iPhone or iPad already connected to the network.

Be aware that such networks may have a time limit for connections, and you may need to re-establish it every so often.

1. Using an iPhone or iPad, connect to the hotel’s Wi-Fi network. Follow the instructions to establish the connection.
2. Hook up the Apple TV to the hotel room’s television and turn it on.
3. On the Apple TV, open the Settings app.
4. Select Network then Wi-Fi, and select the hotel’s Wi-Fi network.
5. Once a captive network is detected, select the option to Continue on iPhone or iPad.
6. On the iPhone or iPad, follow the on-screen instructions to access the network, such as any required usernames or passwords.

The above instructions are to directly connect your hardware to the hotel’s network, but it still leaves you with the peer-to-peer problem. You won’t be able to use HomePods as speakers for your Apple TV, for example, since they can’t see each other on the network.

The solution to this is to create your own room-specific network, that treats the hotel’s internet connection as a source of Internet rather than a local-area network.

A compact travel router could simplify your hotel room’s networking.

By using your own travel router, you will have a network that you can manage and control within the room, including enabling peer-to-peer connections between your devices. Meanwhile, as the router handles traffic going through the hotel’s network, it saves you from having to set up separate connections for each device.

You can do this with a lot of routers, but we like the GL.iNet GL-MT1300 (Beryl) travel router. Offering three Gigabit Ethernet ports and dual-band Wi-Fi, it also has a USB 3.0 port and microSD card slot, providing you with a form of file server for the network should you be so inclined.

It also includes IPv6 support, compatibility with over 30 VPN providers, Tor support, and can act as a repeater for public Wi-Fi to create a private Wi-FI network.

In general, the principle is to connect the router to the network and get it going, treating it like a home’s fiber internet connection. You then set your devices up to connect to the travel router, just like you would at home.

The procedure to do this varies somewhat. As a general rule, you connect one device to the hotel Wi-Fi and connect with the capture page. You then power up the router, use the router’s app or a specific webpage local to the router for configuration, and then connect it to the hotel Wi-Fi.

With our preferred router, you can connect an iPhone to it over USB, and use that as your source of Internet. It is important to note that hotel Wi-Fi is often bandwidth-challenged, and you’ll be sharing one connection with every device on your network that you just configured.

Practically, we use it just for our Apple TV and HomePod mini pair combo, since hotel flat-screen televisions aren’t known for audio quality. We then control the set with the Apple TV remote, or Siri.

If you travel and spend a lot of time in hotels and temporary lodgings with a lot of devices, this could be the best route forward to avoid spending more time setting up your Apple devices instead of relaxing and actually using them.